1.1.6-Columbina
Brick!Club, 1.1.6: Who Guarded His House For Him Favourite lines of the chapter: *“The most beautiful of altars,” he said, “is the soul of an unhappy creature consoled and thanking God.” *“The beautiful is as useful as the useful.” He added after a pause, “More so, perhaps.” *“The door of the physician should never be shut, the door of the priest should always be open.” *“Do not inquire the name of him who asks a shelter of you. The very man who is embarrassed by his name is the one who needs shelter.” *He was fond of saying, “There is a bravery of the priest as well as the bravery of a colonel of dragoons - only,” he added, “ours must be tranquil.” I really feel for Mademoiselle Baptistine’s furniture set, mostly beause I am a very shallow person and I know that feeling when you can visualise the thing you want perfectly, and where you will put it and how it will look and how happy it will make you. And sure that sort of thinking arguably makes you Not A Very Good Christian, when you’re putting that much stock in physical possessions but aw, come on… I was going to put a name at the end of that, but I’m not sure if I’m annoyed at Myriel or Hugo! “However, who is there who has attained his ideal?” seems a bit dismissive, especially, as kingedmundsroyalmurder mentioned, in a book that is LARGELY ABOUT TRYING TO ATTAIN YOUR IDEALS. Obviously, one’s ideal of being a super great person (with all the various definitions of that that the characters have) =/= one’s ideal couch, but it still makes me irrationally upset! Likewise with the lack of locks - it seems like everyone in the tags is pretty much with the ladies on this one, and I’m just, you know Myriel, it’s great that your faith is super enough that you’re going to trust God over locks, but it’s perfectly reasonable for other people to be less on board with it. This is one of those faith issues that I sort of have from time to time - once in a blue moon I’ll go with my friend to her super Pentecostal church, generally if I’ve stayed over the night before or whatever, and there was one time when they were having some issues with some visas for a mission trip, and they were praying that they knew that God would sort this out for them and I was (once again) irrationally upset because NO IT DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT. You aren’t guaranteed visas because of belief! And then a little voice is like “Well, Columbina, why not?” and I’m like BECAUSE FREE WILL OF VISA GRANTERS AND STUFF. And also because then what happens if you think like that and one day something doesn’t work out for you the way you’d hoped / expected, you are going to take that a hundred times worse than you would otherwise and that makes me worry about you and OKAY I’M NOT SURE I’M TALKING ABOUT LES MIS ANY MORE. The POINT IS, sometimes I wish I was cool enough that I could happily leave all my doors open like the Bishop, but also that sometimes people who do that make me angry. Which I guess is why I like the line about not asking for names when someone asks for shelter - it’s the sort of reminder I need in life, without upsetting me on a practical level. Even though the whole thing comes across to me as a bit “lol women are such worriers / obsessed with floral print sofas amirite”, I’m going to choose to believe that Hugo was trying to make the Bishop a little less perfect here, an awesome guy to have in your neighbourhood but a rubbish housemate.